Georgia claims team gold medal

The Georgian men's team and the women's team from the Netherlands claimed gold as the adidas European Judo Championships 2013 concluded with the team championships Sunday in Budapest, Hungary.

The Georgians, led by Olympic Champion Lasha Shavdatuashvili had not much trouble with the Hungarians, beating them 4:1. They put out an equally strong performance in the semifinal, defeating the Netherlands 4:1 as well. The final was a repeat of last year's final against Russia. The Georgians had to overcome a little shock in the first match when Mikhail Pulyaev beat Shavdatuashvili, but rallied back to win the following four matches with Zebeda Rekhviashvili (vs Musa Mogushkov), Avtandil Tchrikishvili (vs Sirazhudin Magomedov), Varlam Liparteliani (vs Grigorii Sulemin) and Adam Okruashvili (vs. Renat Saidov).

Georgia took their sixth European team title since 2002. "This win means everything to me, to our team, to our country. I was very nervous in my fight, because I knew I could get the decisive point. It was very important that I did it", Varlam Liparteliani commented. "We had a strong team here at the European Championships, we got three gold medals, three silver, one bronze, but it is not about the individual medals, the most important was the team event. Today everybody wins, everybody is happy", he continued.